Video Of The Week: Training and Racing on the Charles with the French National Team

This week's video comes to us from the Continent, and features the two eights of French national squad athletes who made the trip over to Boston for the 49th Head Of The Charles Regatta last year. Even if you don't speak a word of French, this is 22 minutes of time well spent—from excellent shots of technical rowing, to the trip over to the U.S., to race footage from the regatta, there's much to be taken from this short film (and there's always value in seeing something familiar from a different perspective). Last year, these two crews placed a very close fourth and fifth, with the top entry (featuring several Olympians including Julien Bahain and Cedric Berrest) just two seconds off the winning Dutch eight in a very tightly packed field.

This year, France is sending another crew that includes some familiar faces from last year's effort. The lineup (c: Benjamin Manceau, 8: Benjamin Lang, 7: Julien Despres, 6: Jean-Baptiste Macquet, 5: Germain Chardin, 4: Matthieu Androdias, 3: Cedric Berrest, 2: Benoit Brunet, 1: Sebastien Lente) boasts Olympic medalists in Chardin, Berrest, and Despres and will be looking to climb up the podium in another intensely competitive field, including no shortage of Great Eights.

Keep tabs on the hashtag #HOCR50, and our Twitter feed to stay up to date on all the action on the river (and the riverbank).

Thanks very much to Hugues for sending us the video! Have a submission for 'Video Of The Week?' Shoot us an email at rowingrelated [at] gmail [dot] com, send us your suggestions via Twitter, or get in touch via our Facebook or Google+ pages.